The Reverend is responsible for some of my earliest encouragement to keep shooting street portraits. Nov 2023 I had finally gotten my own camera after scraping money together mostly drawing pet portraits. I couldn’t afford a lens with autofocus yet so I was working manually, which honestly was frustrating while trying to take photos of unpredictable moving subjects . I first met Rev Judith as he calls himself now blissfully eating pizza from the garbage in NW Portland and ranting at people passing by. I stopped to listen to him, which cooled his jets, and he told me about his crazy life. We took some photos and when I came home and looked at them I had that feeling of having knocked through a creative wall and the drive to keep going. The last two shots in here are from that day . Recently I happened upon him on a night I was feeling solitary and reflective. He popped out of a pile of clothes by union station with this smile on his face like a queen’s jester. The last time I saw him was at Zack’s memorial on new years in the pouring rain . This time we talked Zack more but he also told me in a calmer voice than I’ve ever heard from him about his peaceful and privileged childhood roaming around on Puget sound. He said it was beautiful and he was even grateful for the abuse that wounded him then because it made him into the person he became . Sometimes you get the shit kicked out of you by life and walk out of it as an example of strength for the people behind you . When we were taking photos a friend walked by forlorn that he’d been drugged out the day before and missed his own birthday. I asked how old he turned and he said 23. Rev had a nice hoodie on with that number on the front and took it off to give as a gift. The kid was genuinely touched and Rev grinned and shivered as he accepted thanks
